Nitish completes a year, Bihar not a rosy place yet
Nov 24, 2006 - 10:14:35 PM
, Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
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According to her, during the first year of the Nitish Kumar government 90,000 incidents of crime, including 24,000 murders, 7,000 kidnappings and 7,500 rapes were reported.
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By RxPG News Service,
[RxPG] Patna, Nov 24 - Most people in Bihar still believe Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will deliver. Despite the high crime rate, the pathetic roads and poor power supply, their hope for change is still alive as well as the euphoria that accompanied his taking over the state's reins exactly a year ago Friday.
Though the high hopes that people have in him augurs well for Nitish Kumar, he still has to prove his worth at the ground level.
A year after he took over, the dominant sentiment among people in rural and urban Bihar is that they want good results soon.
'Hame Nitish sarkar se abhi bhi umeed hain ki vikash hoga, crime rokega aur road banega. Lekin ab deri hua to logon ka vishwas khatam ho jayega -,' said Mahendra Paswan, one of the hundreds of labourers working in the state capital.
From Paswan's words, it is clear that crime continues in the state as usual despite the government's claim of having improved law and order. Even the much-awaited road construction is yet to begin. Nothing has changed for the better in the health and power sector.
However, the state has managed to attract big investments and the attention of a few major corporate houses, including the Tatas, Mahindra and Mahindra and Bharti Telecom in the last 10 months. According to the State Investment Promotion Board, it has approved 61 out of 200 investment proposals worth Rs.253 billion.
'The state, for the first time in the last five decades, cleared investments of over Rs.40 billion in the sugar industry this year. This signals a new beginning for Bihar to make a big leap,' said Sugar Development Minister Nitish Mishra.
On Nov 24 last year, when Nitish Kumar took over, he promised to turn Bihar into a crime-free state within three months. It is a different matter that he later admitted that it was not possible. The cases of kidnapping, murder, bank robbery, extortion, loot and atrocities against disadvantage people reported in the last one year indicate the failure of the state government to check and control crime.
But a major achievement has been the speedy trial of criminals initiated by the government that resulted in conviction of over 5,000 people in the last one year. The government has also launched a special drive to nab corrupt officials. Till date, 75 police complaints have been registered against corrupt officials and around 35 officials arrested and sent to jail.
Bad roads continue to trouble. Around 7,700 km of road in districts, 3,629 km of national highways and 3,232 km of state highways are in pitiable condition. This is despite a plan outlay of Rs.15 billion and a non-plan outlay of Rs.2 billion for construction of roads.
On Thursday, the Patna High Court rapped the state government's failure to improve the condition of roads. The court directed the government to start the construction of roads at the earliest.
Last December, the state government announced it would construct roads, but nothing happened. Now Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav has promised that construction would begin this December.
Even the power situation has not improved. People in most of the state's 38 districts except Patna continue in the lantern age. The district headquarters and small towns just get four to eight hours of electricity daily.
The opposition led by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former chief minister Lalu Prasad is out to turn the situation to its advantage. It is gearing up to play the role of a real opposition, unlike in the past 12 months when it occasionally targeted the government.
Opposition leaders do not miss an opportunity to term the Nitish Kumar government as of 'kushashan' -, contrary to the claims of 'sushashan' by the chief minister.
Nitish Kumar's personal honesty and sincerity have impressed the people in the state as well as his measures to attract investors, tackle corruption and initiate development.
'I have to work harder to achieve the targets. Governance is my first priority. I strongly feel that things are moving in the right direction in the state,' Nitish Kumar told IANS over telephone Friday.
But leader of opposition and former chief minister Rabri Devi said nothing had changed in the state in the last one year. 'Things have gone from bad to worse. People are fed up with the daily promises and no work,' Rabri Devi said.
'Nitish Kumar has failed in providing good governance, checking crime and constructing roads,' she commented.
According to her, during the first year of the Nitish Kumar government 90,000 incidents of crime, including 24,000 murders, 7,000 kidnappings and 7,500 rapes were reported.
The coming months will be a testing time for Nitish Kumar to make a difference at the ground level.
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